For customers still unsure whether they’re ready to make the switch to an all-electric vehicle, Ford is sweetening the pot.

Today, the company launched a new initiative called the “Ford Power Promise,” in which it will provide a suite of benefits to customers who buy or lease a new EV. And chief among them is a complimentary home charger for all new customers, as well as the costs of standard installation.

The charger that’s being offered is the company’s Ford Charge Station Pro, a $1,310 Level 2 charger that comes with a standard CCS1 connector. Ford declined to put a monetary value on the installation but said it would cover costs up to 60 amps of power and 80 feet of wire run. Customers who need to upgrade their home electrical panel before the installation, however, will need to cover those costs themselves.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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      10 hours ago

      Educated guess here, but yes. Your panel might only be designed to handle 200A and a bulk of that is typically used by your home already, primarily your major appliances and heating/cooling.

      • spongebue@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        What are you talking about? 200A is a HUGE panel as it is. You’re going to have a hard time getting bigger than that on a residential connection. If you go balls to the wall with the big stuff in your house, you’d be looking at about 30 amps for AC, 50 for stove and oven (by the way, that’s all burners and oven running at the same time. Happy Thanksgiving?), 30 for a clothes dryer, and you still have 90 amps at 240 volts remaining.

        Oh, and realistically that’s two 90-amp sets of 120 volts. And really, most people charge their car at night, when demand and rates are lower. Maybe your AC is going to run occasionally, but you’re probably not making that Thanksgiving feast while laundry is going

        • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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          2 hours ago

          You forgot the furnace and water heater. If those are electric, it can easily max out a 200 amp panel.

          Also, the fact that you’ll never use the full 50 amps on the range isn’t really important. There are calculations on how much you can overbook your panel. Once you hit that limit, electricians and code won’t allow it.

      • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Add to this if your home was built in the ancient times like before the 90s your panel usually only supported up to 100 amps. My house built in 1956 only has a 100 amp panel and if you have a electric oven those take 40 of those 100 amps which doesn’t leave much for a car charger. So when I remodeled my garage I removed the electric oven from our kitchen and installed gas just so I could avoid upgrading my panel and could dedicate 40 amps to the garage.

        I know gas bad but my oven connects to my Home Assistant and it turns on and locks the kitchen ventilation to on while in use. Also have many air quality sensors.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          6 hours ago

          Sure hope that you’re saving money using gas for your oven instead of electricity otherwise there’s no logic to how you did things…

          • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            Well $2000+ for the panel upgrade and $450 for the oven and black pipe to plumb the gas. So yes cheaper, also gas is cheaper than electric per BTU in my area. I may do my own panel upgrade in the coming years when I install solar.

            • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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              4 hours ago

              Gas is also a big benefit when your power goes out. We still had hot water and a fireplace when we lost power for 5 days a few years ago after a big ice storm. Our stove is electric but we were able to use the BBQ to cook during that outage.

      • Clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works
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        10 hours ago

        Interesting. So maybe you need more power from the street (bigger cable trenched) and a “bigger” circuit breaker panel.